Not welcome to the site. Please tell me that this virus did not spread from Doke to Smudzik to pantherlair to here. Although this could just be a poser. There was no mention of a 40 time in the comments.

Chas – Please consider a short leash on Joe D. When he contributes in a reasonable fashion his input is interesting, but when he tries to dominate by continuously posting the same thing over and over, it ruins the enjoyment for all. For example, he’s made his view known, this recruit is a bum and is not D1 material. No need for him to repeat this again and again . . . . .
As for the rest of us, ignore him and maybe he’ll go away.

As for this recruit, a 6′ 2″ ILB with lots of smarts may be a risk worth taking, but the question is will be is he atheletic enough? Only time will tell. For example, I was not a Max Gruder fan, but he was servicable and maybe that’s what this young man turns out to be which isn’t horrible. Little depth at LB on the team now.

Joe D having read your posts elsewhere I am glad for one thing that you have no say in who Pitt recruits. With apologies to track athletes everywhere I don’t want to have season tickets to a track meet!!!!

Stop the negativity over the recruiting. I am sure those of you being negative never coached football or evaluated players or even played football (ok, maybe electric football).
It is truly ruining this blog.

The staff is doing a great job of filling positions of need. The class is shaping up nice.

So the infamous blogger Joe D shows up on Pitt Blather. In the words of Smeagle, “Pleas go away and never come back!” This site has enough star gazers without the recruiting prophet of doom and high priest of the star gazing cult abiding and aboding here. Be gone you worker of recruitment wickedness…

Joe D.? How did you find this website? Just kidding…
Welcome onboard – this site is different than the other blogs as we don’t alienate each other or try to dominate the conversations and we respect each other’s opinions for the most part.

At least all the other posters don’t, I tend to post long comments though. But it has been the most civil by far and that is what makes it the most rewarding PITT blog.

btw… Reed..
on the other article… Shell is not going to be a happy camper to redshirt… he said he is going to get on the field one way or another.
I think he has to adjust to the speed of the game… welcome to BCS D1 football R.Shell.. this isn’t the wpial anymore…

Joe D dont be a jack ass this kid had good offers
syracuse rutgers pitt yale and harvad.
when you posted you left off the big east offers.
when you want to make a point be honest dont just list half of what was there.

Well there’s only three things that can happen to this Pitt program. Either we get better, which as this point puts us back in the Wanny area; we improve vastly and finally live up to potential and Chryst becomes the Jaime Dixon of football; or we get worse and we are back in the 90’s. Time will only tell, but the question that will determine all of this is: can the coaching staff “coach them up” enough to be highly competitive while mixing in just enough 4-5 star athletes that live up to potential and fill out the roster.

Well, I’m sure there will be a lot of unhappy players when the two deep comes out. We’ll see where Shell ends up after Saturday’s scrimmage – I’d have no problem at all if he’s the #3 back but there is Crockett’s play so far to contend with.

I don’t think this coaching staff cares much about player’s HS reputations. They seem to be all about show me what you have in practice and in the scrimmages.

And it might not just be the speed of the game for Shell but the adjustment into college football itself. It is easy for every freshman to waltz in and play well right off the bat – as a matter of fact the opposite is the norm.

Academics in the ACC, no way! I like the pick-up when you start looking at the big board of who is left. Obviously, Pitt is also keeping three open for Dorian, Boyd and Foster (sounds like a law firm). How many more scholarships are left?

I do think Pitt should keep a few in tow just in case there are players that have breakout years this fall and get caught in a numbers game at other universities, or just weren’t on a radar. Pitt will is building strength. The fan base now needs to build up the team.

As far as Jody is concerned, there should be a regulator on here to limit posts..lol. I do think that Chaz and Reed should give the good folks at the blather blog, star rankings. Anyway a solid pickup for Pitt on this one. Remember 4-5 starters out of each recruiting class.

Joe D i some times put down the recruiting but i am honest abought the offers i list them all. and i try to give reasons why i put it down i dont just make a statement that it is bad.
so if you cant be fair and honest abought why you dont like a player dont do it.

there was nothing wrong with his outher offers they werent all from mac schools he was agood pick up.

My opinion… of the player of the 2013 class that will contribute next year…
1. Blewitt
2. Orndoff
3. Soto
I don’t count Jarrett because he is really a 2012 do-over committ.
Chapman will be redshirted.. In fact probably the rest of the class will probably red shirt as it stand so far.

Joe D why the negativity dont get me wrong
some times that is good but not 100 percent of the time.
and when you did list all the kids offers like the 2 from the big east i knew you were a bull shit poster less then honest and craveing attention like a bad child,

JD let me try to reason with you had the kid offers been akron kent state bowling green and yale then you would have had a point.
you could have said we are building a all mac team
or something like that.

but the kid had 3 big east offers plus the outher 2 so to say what you did and leave the big east offers off of your post brands you as just
mr negativity.
if you have a real point that is well thought out
welcome. but no negativity just to be negative.

I agree. Doke has a very good writeup today. And for the most part, I agree with his comments. How many scholies do we have left? Getting Foster and Dorian would make this class on offense. Not sure what defensive studs are left out there to recruit. That’s another reason why I don’t like the go slow approach with recruiting. Joe D and I can agree on that one.

Seems like a really good football player, maybe not the fastest though? I like the fact that Chryst is going after smart players. Smart football teams are hard to beat because they don’t beat themselves.

TX Panther i just ask reed but have not hard back yet .
i think every year you can have 25 commits
but i think we only have room for 18 0n the team unless we have transfers or some flunk out .
if you find out post the info please.

PK i thought 4 weeks ago reed said we had room for 16 we have had 2 transfer so now we have room for 18.
i know we can have 25 commits but i dont think we can sign them all unless there is room if you know true info please post it but no guess please

This is an excellent pickup on the recruiting end.
While I wasn’t a big Max Gruder fan, he did server one big purpose, he called the signals on D. And he was in position to make a whole lot of tackles, and those were his two big jobs on the team. And come to think of it, he never got injured I believe, so his was very durable to boot.

And that’s exactly what I expect this kid will do eventually for Pitt’s D. Every D needs a guy out there who can call the signals, get them all lined up where they ought to be and basically be a coach on the field. And keep his teammates’ heads in the game. Because while they all might know where to position themselves in practice, the heart beats much faster and the mind has a tendency to race once the real game begins and the crowd noise raises to fever pitch.

FRABNKCAN–I saw somewhere that the current number was 20-21 ships available with a possibility it could go to the full 25 if there were 4-5 players who left due to transfers out, career ending injuries (keep ship but not counted vs 85/25), etc.

pitt1972 thank you now i will say 20 to be safe when trying to guess who we can have commit. so i must think who that 4 will be 1 for johnston 1 for foster so we must wait till loi day for them if we have to.

Wow, I feel kinda out of the loop, not knowing who this notorious Joe D character is.

As for the actual subject at hand, I sincerely hope for everyone involved that this guy does not bring to mind any memories of Max Gruder. No offense to MG, because he played hard and seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, but if we’re going to be competitive in the ACC, I’m thinking recruiting more guys of Gruder’s talent level isn’t going to do it.

jeff, i think what reminds them of gruder is he is a heady football player who is always involved in plays. as far as i can tell, hes bigger and a bit faster than gruder so theres that. at this point, the only “star” pitt can get in the linebacking core this class is al-rasheed benton. i don know if any of you have seen his highlights, but the kid flies around the field and he flat out drops the boom on ball carriers. hes a hard hitter who pitt could use

Here is what i am thinking if we only have 4 or 5 left to give to commits.
and if i know that pitt is going to save 2 for foster and johnson.
and i have a pitt offer and there at least 15 outhers who have offers from pitt .

then i am calling them and commiting real soon
before the class is full becuse with only 3 to give do i want to gamble i say no not unless you
are foster or johnson .

well, if theres only room for 20, then the last four need to go to foster and 3 ol including johnson. i dont know how theres only room for 20 when last years class was only 16 and teams like alabama sign 35 every year. pitt hasnt had a full class in forever how the hell can they only get 20? that makes no sense

I think some miss the point, you can have all the great athletes in the world, as PITT has been able to do with plenty of great athletes in the NFL. But somehow those great athletes only led to average or slightly above average teams in college.

Florida State & Miami are still recruiting great players, yet somehow their teams haven’t been too great for awhile now.

Wisconsin on the other hand has recruited less than PITT, but has been able to win the Big 10 in consecutive years and go to the Rose Bowl with recruiting classes not loaded with 4 star kids.
And has been a factor in the Big 10 for over a decade or longer, again with lower rated recruiting classes than PITT and certainly alot lower than OSU, Michigan, & Pedo State.

So it would seem to me, it’s about molding guys who can play together best as a team. Not having a
bunch of 4 & 5 star big headed un-coachable kids, running around looking to make a big hit and a name for themselves.

So there appears to be a method to PC’s recruiting which is making more sense as the days progress.

Boston College (before last year) has competed quite well in the ACC. And has even played a couple times for the championship. And they are not loaded up with 4 & 5 star recruits. Nor have they ever been. And tiny Wake Forest (less than 4K enrollment) has even won the ACC and represented them in the Orange Bowl as recently as 2008. Does anyone think WF is loaded with 4 star recruits ?

So I think we’ll be fine down in Mid Dixie and I think PC and his Wisconsin cohorts know how to mold a winning and viable team.

PK i am waiting on reed for that info but you can have as many commits as you want but only sign 25 .
what you do is cut the commit you dont want lose and say dont have room for you or someting like that reed will explain plus you have to have room on team for the 25 .

Check this out i went to panther digest and we have 42 offers out right now and if we have 9 that pk says.
and you want to come to pitt you better make that call becuse even if we have 9 you know that 2 will be saved for foster and johnson so that would only leave 7 for the 40 offecers that are out there.

“Please tell me what on that 90 sec highlight reel you found to be wow… remember this was the best he could find on tape after some 10 games.”

To be fair it was only really a 60 second clip, but if you watched about 10 more seconds, there’s a slide that says you have to purchase a membership as a college coach to view the rest. I’m gonna guess Coach Chryst might have a membership and access to the rest of the film. I have nothing against adding some smart kids to the team early on. If your building a program, they usually learn the finer intricacies of the system over time and they provide some pretty good tutoring down the road as the program gets established.

I could not agree any more wholeheartedly with your 9:09 post. While there are some legit concerns with the recruiting so far, one can truly see that Chryst and Co. Have a plan, a specific type of player they are looking for and are building a team and program.

While we can complain about how fast our recruiting approach is, the staff is clearly examining players carefully and being very selective. They are clearly building relationships and making inroads for local and other players.

I want to win this year as much as others on here. But I’d rather have a good program year after year. I think Chryst is doing that.

I think we keep 5-6 scholarships open for the season. I think a lot of possible recruits are waiting to see on field results before committing. A winning and an impressive product may reel in som of the ones PK listed and mayb some we haven’t even thought of.

Dan bud dont leave agein who knows what will happen if you do.
I told JD that negativity just to be negative is wrong and he did not even list the offers from the big east the kid had that wasent honest .

Iwent over most of the offers pitt has out and if
these offers were not pulled here are 2 that should commit asp.
junior joseph MLB 6 foot 1 230 pounds his only offers are toledo kent state old domaion and pitt
.
xzavier mcallister OG 6 foot 5 310 pounds his offers are kent state akron western michigan and
pitt.

the only good offers they have are from pitt
we may have pulled the offers but if not they have to be nuts not to call on the phone and commit.

Good to be back after some time away–most of the comments are now about football and there is progress in recruiting! I’m not sure what we do about the annoying presence that jumped in here. Hopefully with the wise counsel of some of you good people he will decide to grow up and become part of the general tone of civility that is typical here. If not ignoring may be advisable. I know recruiting rankings don’t mean much. Nevertheless it is good to see Pitt jumping up in the rankings. Rivals has Pitt ranked above the ‘eers and the nits and #1 in the Big East. Go Pitt!

We currently have 77 scholarship players. We currently have 15 players whose eligibility is up after this season. By my calculations we should be in a position to give out 23 schollies in 2013 minus any walk-ons/transfers that get rewarded or become eligible (a la Tom Savage and David Durham). Are there other players sitting out this year? That’s 21 available scholarships absolute MAX.

Why all the fuss about Joe D? If you don’t like it, just walk around him like you do with dog crap on the sidewalk. Seems to me like alot of you choose to step in it.
Man, the reality is that except for the really super players, star rankings are the result of PR.
I watched replays of 2 Wisconsin rose bowls this week. I bet the starting 22 was lucky to have 50 stars total.

But as Doke says and I agree with him, every team needs at least a few star or very elite players on both sides of the ball. I think Foster and Dorian are the two on offense. Not sure who we recruited on D that has a shot of becoming a dominant force and taking over the game. Soto?

A HS recruit gets a star rating based on what he did yesterday. You win football games by what you do tomorrow. Every good coach understands that.

Pick the kids with the right stuff, smart, motivated, coachable and not full of themselves at the ripe old age of 16-17. Then get them under your wing, help them grow up, develop their full potential and watch them bloom into good football players.

Recruiting star ratings are just an early opinion.

BTW, welcome JoeD, last ime I checked its a free country, go do your thing. Just remember that if the concensus determines that you’re an a$$hole, then you probably are. Why don’t you prove them wrong?

I agree with Emel wholeheartedly. I have listened to coach Chryst and his staff. The one thing which jumps out to me is the fact they are teachers first. They want the players to understand what is required to play their position(s) physically, technically, mentally, and most important mistake free.

They want each individual player to be responsible in their assignments in respect to said position play and unit wise. The result is the team does not beat itself on game day.

Being responsible for constantly striving to get better is the nucleus from which success will come for Pitt football according the gospel of Saint Chryst. My hope is the Pitt Football Program becomes a field of dreams under HCPC because as everyone knows…..IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME!!!!

Dr Tom I would love to be more positive about the upcoming season but its hard to overlook our obvious shortcomings at the most important position on the team. I truly hope Tino proves me wrong but don’t see it happening.

JD welcome to the self-righteous world of Pitt Blather. When one of the accepted blathers makes an opinion (Reed, Chas, etc.,) it is taken as knowledge and wisdom and fawned over. If someone oout of the clique makes a contrary “opinion” they are “_ _ _ holes,” “idots,” and “anti-Pitt.”

They never consider that their remarks are only their “opinion” just as yours is except that it is contrary to theirs and they have no compunction to use personally demeaning, foul, and condemming language.

I have decided to let them cast as many stones at me as they want because I realize what I wrote abvove is more than an opinion it is fact.

Reed,I think if they are bumping up against the 85 limit that moving a player to the 2012 class instead of the 2013 class by having him enroll in January, 2013 wouldn’t help. It is my understanding that in that situation that they would have the recruit enroll in January, 2014 and count him against the 2014 class. I think it is called a grayshirt.

Houston Panther..
I don’t think Chryst will exceed the 85 limit come signing day..
He likes to have a few ships available for transfers, etc. unless he knows some players currently on roster are leaving the team freeing up some ships.

I believe the scouting services star ratings use a scale for each specific recruiting class as follows (the numbers may not be exact, but you can get the gist):

Top 50 players – 5 stars
Next 50 – 4 stars
Next 100 – 3 stars

In actuality:
– Couldn’t some years actually have only 35 true blue-chippers? So 15 others will still be rated 5 stars even though they truly might be 4 stars.
– Some years may have 80 ‘almost’ blue-chippers after the first 50, but only 50 would be rated at 4 stars and the other 30 be rated at 3?
– In the above example, the 30 that should have been 4s would be 3s thereby pushing the bottom 30 of the 3 stars to 2 stars.

My point is there is no specific criteria (40 time, bench press, size, etc) to the ratings. Whatever stars a player may have received in one recruiting class, doesn’t directly correlate to another class.

Stars do help some when looking at recruiting rankings, but the only true way to quantify is by looking at their production when their career ends.

@ Coach Ditka, I’m with you, I hear your concerns, but using a poker saying, you bet on the cards you that have in your hand. Right now Tino is the man. I find myself even being concerned that if he gets hurt and loses playing time this season that THEN Pitt will be in trouble, WTF kind of logic is that???

Our only hope is that this coaching staff and their pro set system will instill that intangable confidence factor into Tino, which could transform him into a servicable QB in the clutch. He really needs to step up his game when put under pressure. So much of that is just having the game slow down for you in those situations. Some of that comes with maturity and playing time. Often it is directly tied to confidence and previous winning results that comes when you play with it. Neither of which Sunseri currently has on his resume.

The wildcard here however is PC and staff. Is it just lip service or will they REALLY “play to their players strengths”? If they can identify what Sunseri’s strengths are, in the first place, and then magnify them by putting him in situations that breed confidence and keep him out of those bad schemes that find him soiling himself then we have a chance to develop a servicable offense.

I’m going to give everybody concerned the benefit of the doubt until they show their hand because there are just so many variables that are so different from last season. If it turns out to be the same old, same old as last year, then I’ll be jumping on your bandwagon too, but lets at least give this year a chance to get going before we throw in the towel.

As I aways say, that why the play the games. I’m just hoping for a transformation of Tino’s play this year if the above coaching actually occurs and breeds success, then God Bless Paul Chryst.

Even acknowledging that Tino has not had help, I have been down on him, from things he has down to himself. No pocket presense, and when line has blocked, and receivers open, throwing ball two yards in front them into the dirt, or a sideline out route, with ball sailing over the receivers head.

I have bought into Coach Chyrst, and with what he has done at Wisconsin, especially with the Q.B.s, I have to believe he will have some positive influence on Tino’s techniques, and his overall performance.

A top 10 qb, no, of course not. But if you were grading, I’m hoping going from a D or C+, to a B or B+.

Also, I think Chyrst is smart enough, to also be watching for Tino’s strengths and weaknesses.

Then, being able to put him in situations and calling plays that are comfortable for Tino and hopefully will help him improve.

I’m worried about Tino as well. I do think PCs offense will help him succeed this season. A good running game will also help.

But I believe having solid TEs will help him too. They are always a great outlet for a QB when things break down. After reading articles about Pitt’s TEs the past week, Tino has weapons there.

I’ve always looked at TEs with rookie QBs when playing Fantasy Football because I know they are going to get a lot of balls while the QB gets up to speed. Tino may never get ‘up to speed’, so I think the TEs will be his best friends this year and will be a key to Pitt’s success.

If Tino can dump the ball to a back or end as opposed to taking the sack, I’ll take that. For whatever reason, Tino took the sack last year as opposed to throwing the ball away or running for his life. I know he didn’t have a good line or receivers but how difficult is it to throw away the damn ball.

TX, I hear ya, or worse running out of bounds behind the line when he could have just thrown it away (at least twice that I can recall). However, I do think that the system change is reason for optimism with Tino’s play. I think that most of his reads this year will be much closer to the line of scrimmage. His first read will be a hand off, second a screen pass to a running back, and third probably a TE screen in the middle of the field. I’m being overly simplistic, of course, but the real point is that there will be far fewer plays in each game where Tino will have to read multiple WR patterns against the defense. For the most part, they will run called plays out of the huddle. In that offense Tino can succeed. It just does not ask of much from the QB.

DRW – no one fawns over anybody on here. I write reminders all the time that i post opinions on here with some factual stuff throw in.

But this isn’t journalism and we don’t have to do anything but post items for people to comment on.

Go back over my articles if you wish and see how many times I write “In my opinion”, “I think”, “I believe”, “Apparently”, “It seems” and on and on.

I understand exactly what your ticked about and it is the Mark Myers issue. But you must realize that the things I wrote about him and discussed on here were not state secrets. At no point did I ever say “I heard through a super secret channel that his arm sucks” No, I said “I think he isn’t the passer everyone thinks he is”. As a matter of fact the only conversation I quoted at all on here was the one I had with his own Father who talked about him transferring last season.

But really, everything I said about Myers and all the points I made weren’t original thoughts on here. If you follow PITT football as closely as I, and others, do you’d have seen that the same sentiments were echoed by numerous beat writers and radio interviews.

You can disagree with me, and I’ll say Chas also, as much as you want. But once I post up an article I have as much right to keep discussing the content as any other poster.

Finally, if you are referencing me with your comment about “personally demeaning, foul, and condemming language” then obviously I somehow offended you personally and for that I apologize. I also don’t remember doing it because that would be out of character for me, but still. Rest assured if I did then it was out of frustration regarding our Myers discussion rather than any animosity I have toward you, because there is none.